June 28, 2015
Picking up where I left off the day prior, I began by sanding the cockpit. The goal for the day was to have all surfaces sanded to 80-grit in the cockpit, poop deck, and side decks outboard of the nonskid surface and up to the bow pulpit.
The sanding was done with the Porter Cable 382, 5" random orbital sander, and by hand in areas that proved impossible for the 382 to access.
The nonskid surfaces in the cockpit and side decks were preserved for today. Later in the restoration, I will come back with a thorough cleaning, light sanding, and application of a fresh coat of nonskid paint.
The compass in the companionway bulkhead was removed with the intent of updating, and the absence of the compass made work on the surfaces a lot easier.
I removed the Cape Dory hull I.D. plate, and cleaned up the surrounding surfaces.
After I finished sanding all the surfaces in the day's targeted work areas, I over drilled all fastener holes in the workspace: cockpit, poop deck, transom, and side decks up to the companionway bulkhead. I used a tapered bit, and opened up the holes to provide more surface area for the filling compound to form a mechanical bond with. There were six fastener holes along the front of the cockpit seat lockers that required a bit more work in filling. For these six holes, I aggressively sanding the inside surfaces to prepare for a 2" x 3" tab of 1708 biaxial cloth to provide some backing for the thickened epoxy - in the area of these six holes, the laminate was laid up thinner than surrounding areas, thus requiring patches on the inside of the seat lockers. After over-drilling the holes I planed to fill, I wiped all surfaces down with acetone to prepare for filling. I then prepared a small batch of epoxy, without filler, and wet out of the areas I planned to fill. With the same batch of "neat" epoxy, I wet out the 6 small 1708 biaxial tabs, and placed onto the inside surface of the seat lockers. Next step was to mix a batch of epoxy and thicken it with colloidal silica. The mixture was then forced into the fastener holes and cleaned up with a small plastic spreader tool.
Here is an unfocused shot of the 2" x 3" 1708 biaxial patch on the inside the cockpit seat locker.
Working my way around the cockpit, poop deck, transom, and side decks, I quickly filled the fastener holes.
The temperature was pushing the mercury today, and as a result, I did not have a lot of time to work with the epoxy, but managed to make my way around the targeted fill areas using three separate small batches.
The next step will be to sand the fill areas, and then apply a second application of thickened epoxy - this time with the epoxy thickened with micro-balloons in order to easily fair the surfaces.
Total Time: 7 Hrs.
No comments:
Post a Comment